1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle active drive assist device for assisting a driver in driving a vehicle, which provides accurate information on the probability of minor collision of the vehicle with barriers such as guardrails, side walls, parked vehicles, and so forth, so that the vehicle can easily enter and pass through a narrow road or the like, and to a vehicle provided with the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, overall active drive assist systems (ADA system) which positively assist drivers in driving-operation have been developed to enhance the safety of vehicles. A part of the systems have been practically used. According to the ADA system, different probabilities of collision of the object vehicle with a vehicle running ahead, scraping with a barrier, departing of the vehicle from a traffic lane, and so forth are estimated based on the running environmental information of the vehicle and the running state thereof, and when it is anticipated that the safety can not be assured, the driver is informed, and other control or the like is carried out.
As devices for obtaining the running environmental information of vehicles, laser radars have been publicly known. On the other hand, in recent years, it has become possible that images of landscapes and solids placed forward of a vehicle, captured by plural cameras mounted on the vehicle are processed, and thereby, the road and the traffic environments are three-dimensionally recognized at high precision and in time sufficiently for practical use.
Vehicle parking assist devices which use one of the functions of the ADA system, that is, decision whether a vehicle can enter a narrow road, and a narrow road guiding function by which the vehicle is guided in running on a narrow road so as to be prevented from scraping a barrier have been developed. For example, according to a technique described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-234341, a parking-space is determined, and acoustic instruction is made so that a vehicle is guided to the parking position in a guiding-route determined by operation based on the positional relation between the parking and present positions.
According to the above-described narrow road guiding device of the related art, it is possible to guide a vehicle so that the vehicle can pass through a narrow road existing forward of the vehicle. However, a hid body can not be recognized as well as by man""s eyes. Therefore, in some cases, another narrow road through which the vehicle can not be driven may be found after the vehicle enters the narrow road. For example, as shown in FIG. 13, a narrow road 1, which can be seen from the starting position, can be naturally recognized. For this reason, if the vehicle passes through the narrow road 1 and arrives at a position immediately before a narrow road 2, and the vehicle can not pass through the narrow road 2, it is needed that the vehicle is turned (the direction is changed) in some place or is backed on the road which the vehicle has passed through and passes through the narrow road 1 again. However, no devices which are useful for guiding drivers in driving vehicles on such complicated drive-routes have been available.
In view of the foregoing, the present invention has been devised, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle active drive assist device which has high practical applicability, that is, can appropriately guide a vehicle, needless to say, when the vehicle passes through a narrow road which can be seen with the driver, and also, when the vehicle has passed through a narrow road, and is returned to pass the narrow road, and to provide a vehicle having the vehicle active drive assist device.
Accordingly, there is provided a vehicle active drive assist device comprising an environmental position information forming means for forming position information of the environment in the periphery of a vehicle including the travelling direction of the vehicle, a guide means for guiding the vehicle in passing through a narrow road in the travelling direction based on the position information of the environment in the periphery of the vehicle, a guide narrow-road re-passing detection means for detecting that the vehicle is returned to the narrow road which the vehicle has been guided on and passed through, the guide means being applicable to guide the vehicle so as to reach the narrow road by either or both of the movement including turning of the vehicle and the backing of the vehicle, based on the position information of the environment in the periphery of the vehicle formed by the environmental position information forming means, when the vehicle is returned to the narrow road again which the vehicle has been guided on and so as to pass through the narrow road.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more clearly understood from the following description referring to the accompanying drawings.